Interview with Nathon Hay from HouseholdBudgetNerd.com
Posted by : Premraj | Posted on : Friday, July 24, 2009
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REDDITNathon Hay is a BudgetPulse user and fan and have connected with him many times through email and Twitter talking about our respective budgeting wants and goals. It’s great to get to know our users more in depth and he gladly accepted doing an interview for the blog about one of his projects. Here is more information about Nathon.
HouseholdBudgetNerd.com :: How to Make a Budget for Nerds & Free Spirits
Nathon Hay from Dallas, Texas is the newest member of the online personal finance community. He is happily married, has a cat named Tumnus, and collects plastic dinosaur replicas. He refers to himself as a “Budget Nerd”.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
Five years ago I had some simple questions. I work hard, so where does all of my money go? I know I buy things, so why don’t I have more to show for it? I get paid every two weeks, so why am I broke?
The answers came when I began budgeting the family finances for my household.
The first thing I learned was that I didn’t know anything! A budget is simply a plan to spend my money. I plan my vacation. I plan what I’m going to wear. I plan to check my email, even. But plan how I’m going to spend what I’ve got? It hadn’t even occurred to me.
I thought budgeting meant tracking my expenses. Well, that was always disappointing and useless. It wasn’t a plan, so many of my expenses ended up in the generic “miscellaneous category”.
It all clicked when I learned that a budget is a plan, something to do before I do anything else.
I began telling our money what to do. I stopped wondering where it went. The plan I create works, and my money works for me now.
I created HouseholdBudgetNerd.com to share what I know about budgeting, because what I know works for people.
That, and I figure I can make some money off of it.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
“Household Budget” is my main keyword. “Nerd” represents who I am. I’m a budget nerd.
There are two budgeting personalities. The “budget nerd” likes math, details and plans. The “free spirit” likes spontaneity, the bottom line, and the big picture. Take the Budgeting Personality Quiz to confirm which you are!
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
HouseholdBudgetNerd.com doesn’t address every aspect of household finance. You won’t find much here about saving, investing, solvency, or insurance. Those advanced financial tasks will not stand without the financial foundation of a budget.
I’ve created a website so I can organize information about one specific topic within personal finance: budgeting.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
My first major goal is to have a dedicated blog post from Lifehacker.com about my cool looking free budget worksheets. I have one version for budget nerds and another version for free spirits.
My long-term goal is to be mentioned by Oprah. Then the site will be worth millions!
I want to keep it for income.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
I knew it would be hard work and take a lot of time. However, it’s been way easier than I imagined because I bought my hosting from Site Build It!
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
HouseholdBudgetnerd.com is powered by Site Build It! They host thousands of successful websites. Of course we can handle the demand.
